Bradford Fitch has spent 25 years in Washington as a journalist, congressional aide, consultant, college instructor, Internet entrepreneur, and writer/researcher.

Fitch began his career as a radio and television reporter in the 1980s. He began working on Capitol Hill in 1988 where he served for 13 years. He worked in a variety of positions for four Members of Congress, including: press secretary, campaign manager, legislative director, and chief of staff.

Fitch left Congress in 2001 to work for the Congressional Management Foundation. As Deputy Director of CMF, he served as a management consultant for Members of Congress, offering confidential guidance, conducting staff training programs, and writing publications on enhancing the performance of individual congressional offices and the institution. He served as editor of Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide for the 108th Congress and 109th Congress editions. In 2005 Fitch managed CMF's Communicating with Congress project, and co-authored the report, How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy. He left CMF in 2006 to form a new company, Knowlegis, in affiliation with Capitol Advantage. Knowlegis is now a part of CQ-Roll Call Group, where Fitch served as a Vice President until 2010 when he returned to CMF.

Fitch is also the author of Citizen's Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials (TheCapitol.Net, 2010); Media Relations Handbook for Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits and Congress (TheCapitol.Net, 2004); "Best Practices in Online Advocacy for Associations, Nonprofits, and Corporations," a chapter in Routledge Handbook of Political Management (Routledge, 2008); and articles on communications and advocacy. He has taught journalism and public communications at American University in Washington, D.C, where he served an adjunct Associate Professor of Communications. He received his B.A. degree in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University and his M.A. degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University.

And how much of that time is spent contemplating how their work could better align with the CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES this great nation was founded upon? These lousy two bit hucksters nowadays don't even stop to consider how by working they are inherently encouraging the godless communist islamofacist machine that the government has become. If these congressmen really cared about this country they would stop working immediately and refuse to further the political agenda of this usurper's administration. If the dumbocrats, RINOs and spineless jellyfish inderpendents in congress really wanted to work toward rebuilding the country they would stop working to rebuild the country.

Let's hypothetically assume that the study - which was funded and performed by the Congressional Management Foundation, so there's no possibility of bias there at all - is accurate, and they really do work upwards of 70 hours a week.

Let's not leave out serving the interests of the obscenely wealthy and their corporations. They are also quite keen on turning our democracy into an authoritarian police state.

On those issues, they are completely indefatigable.

Hell, we just made the "temporary" Bush tax cuts permanent instead of finally allowing them to expire. Now, only days later, they are seeking to cut Social Security, despite the fact that it is the nation's one self funded program and has trillions of dollars worth of surplus.

"Members of Congress have a pretty strong work ethic. They spend about 70 hours a week when in Washington working, and when they are back home, about 59 hours a week," says Brad Fitch, president and chief executive officer of the Congressional Management Foundation."

...and if you believe this shiat, I got a bridge you might be interested in too.

FTA: Of the 194 members of the U.S. House of Representatives randomly selected to participate in the 2011 survey, 25 responded.

Well, we know the work ethics of about 0.5% of Congress. And I am sure that nobody that actually responded claimed that they were slackers.So I would take 10-15% off the numbers provided and that might actually be a little more accurate.

In order for it to be a Faux News link, it would have indicated that the Republican contingent spends 80 hours a week on the wall defending the country against Muslim Mexican terrorists, while the Democratic legislators were secretly selling us to Islamic Communists hellbent on taking our guns and making us all gay.

Lt. Cheese Weasel:"Members of Congress have a pretty strong work ethic. They spend about 70 hours a week when in Washington working, and when they are back home, about 59 hours a week," says Brad Fitch, president and chief executive officer of the Congressional Management Foundation."

...and if you believe this shiat, I got a bridge you might be interested in too.

SploogeTime:Congress & Senate = lazy bunch of bought-off turds who are severly underworked and very overpaid.

And this is where I bring up my argument about how to solve all of the problems in government.Take away the salaries.

If the polititians really cared so much about the job they were doing, they wouldn't need to get paid 6 figures a year. This is especially true since every last one of them are millionaires to begin with.

Take away the salaries, and all you would have left are people who actually CARE, and would actually DO a good job. And it wouldn't take 5 years to get a single piece of legislation passed. Well, except those that give them a pay raise. Those seem to pass with surpising speed and efficiency. (Obviously, that wouldn't be a problem anymore either.)

That 17% they spend on political and campaign work and the 9% on media and press relations is not work that they do for us, it is work that they do for themselves and, as such, this time should be subtracted from that 70 hour a week number.

Yeah, I could put in 70 hours a week at my job too if they'd let me. Once I finished my work I'd spend my time on facebook or even here. 1/4 of my time at work NOW is spent killing time since they don't give me enough to do, so while I say I put in 40 hours a week, I mean I get PAID for 40 hours a week. That doesn't reflect at all the work I actually do.

durbnpoisn:Take away the salaries, and all you would have left are people who actually CARE

are either rich enough to be able to work 2 or 6 years without a paycheck, or have been bribed enough to be able to afford it.

// next time, think one step beyond what sounds like a good idea// think of what you're incentivizing with that plan, and what the unintended consequences might be// that goes for the rest of you slackers as well